Physical Attraction: LSU and Mary Bird Perkins get Together to Save Lives

LSU’s championship spirit extends beyond the end of football season
and infuses our nationally recognized programs all year long. Our championship
spirit both on the field and in the fields of research, education, and community
service represents some of the University’s most important victories.

LSU is home to a first-class medical physics program run in partnership
with the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, or MBPCC – one of only 11
such accredited programs in the entire country. The advances being made
through this unusual collaboration are not just contributing to theoretical
models and lab tests – they are actually saving lives.

Medical physics is a branch of applied physics concerned primarily with
applying the concepts and methods of physics to the diagnosis and treatment
of diseases – specifically, in this case, cancer. In cancer care,
medical physicists serve as an integral part of the medical treatment team,
working closely with physicians to ensure that their patients receive the
highest quality of care possible. Part of the uniqueness of medical physics
graduate programs is that they deal with training students in the highly
technical aspects of radiological equipment, as well as researching avenues
to produce new technology capable of improving the quality of life and more
efficient treatment of cancer.

In the fall of 2004, LSU and MBPCC signed a collaboration that would link
academia with industry, becoming a successful example of a public-private
partnership ready to address and meet community needs. With a major commitment
from both parties in place, the immediate task at hand was elevating the
stature of the medical physics program, while dramatically expanding cancer
research efforts.

The first step toward reaching this goal was the hiring of Dr. Kenneth
Hogstrom, who had previously served as chair of the radiation physics department
at the University of Texas’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston,
Texas. While there, Hogstrom also served as director of the graduate medical
physics program at the University’s graduate school for biomedical
science.

“I was initially attracted to the program because of the unique
benefits brought about by the University’s cooperation with Mary Bird,”
said Hogstrom. “It is rare to see a partnership like this work so
smoothly, but when one does, the research – and the patients –
reap the rewards.”

Most recently, the medical physics program has garnered national attention
for its work with TomoTherapy Inc. The company initially provided the program
with a three-year grant, now in its final year of funding under Hogstrom,
the principal investigator.

TomoTherapy is a relatively new type of intensity modulated radiation
therapy, or IMRT, which treats patients with X-rays approximately 60 times
stronger than typical diagnostic tests. Each TomoTherapy machine delivers
X-rays to the patient by rapidly rotating a thin, fan-like beam around the
patient in a spiral pattern.

MBPCC and LSU have focused primarily on researching the use of TomoTherapy
for superficial chest wall irradiation of post mastectomy breast cancer
patients and treatment of certain cancers of the scalp with complete scalp
irradiation. For many patients, this is a vast improvement from the traditional
employment of irradiation through electron beam therapy, which can sometimes
cause minor complications for the patient. TomoTherapy treatment delivers
a very uniform and targeted dose of radiation only to the cancerous area,
sparing the surrounding normal tissue from any devastating damage.

Several graduate students and adjunct faculty have been involved in the
TomoTherapy work in the medical physics program. Michael Ashenafi, former
graduate student; Dr. Robert Boyd, his supervisor at MBPCCC; and postdoctoral
fellow Dr. Tae Kyu, developed a study comparing electron beam therapy with
TomoTherapy for post-mastectomy irradiation of the chest wall.

Koren Smith, a recent program graduate; Dr. John Gibbons, her supervisor
at MBPCC; and medical physicist Dr. Dennis Cheek recently completed a study
of the accuracy of TomoTheraphy dose calculations for irradiation of superficial
patient cancers. Based on the results of these studies, post-mastectomy
patients are now being treated with TomoTherapy with more uniform and milder
skin reactions than previously possible.

LSU’s and MBPCC’s solid commitment to the continuing development
of the medical physics program has brought major restructuring over the
course of the past three years. MBPCC has added six new medical physics
positions at the cancer center, and LSU has added a new faculty position.
After being accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics
Education Programs Inc., or CAMPEP, for the maximum period of five years,
the program received another boost from Dr. Charles Smith, one of LSU’s
most prominent alumni.

Smith contributed 30 percent of the funding for an endowed chair to match
the 30 percent raised by MBPCC donors. The chair, one of the most important
building blocks for an up-and-coming program of any type, became fully funded
when the LSU Board of Regents provided the remaining 40 percent necessary
for the $1 million chair. It was recently awarded to Hogstrom in recognition
of his record of achievements and continued efforts in the field.

“Endowed chairs are one of the greatest assets a university has,”
Hogstrom said. “In addition to providing long-term stability for our
program, it will provide funding for research and help to recruit outstanding,
talented faculty and graduate students to the medical physics program in
the future.”

The best part about endowed chairs is that they provide vital, ongoing research
funding rather than a one-time cash gift. With the growing faculty and medical
physics staff, increasing financial support, and peer accreditation, the medical
physics program is poised to bring incredible accolades to LSU and MBPCC and
a quality standard of life for cancer patients everywhere.

LSU is committed to excellence at every level, offering
a challenging academic and research environment
in one of the most unique cultural settings in the nation. Visit www.lsu.edu/flagship
to chart LSU’s path to national prominence.